Obama's suds-'n'-sports tour

President Barack Obama likes sports. He likes beer. He likes sports bars. And he wants to make sure voters see that on the campaign trail.

And, by way of contrast, he’d also like to remind the electorate about who doesn’t seem to enjoy bars, or sports, or sports bars. Hint: It’s the other candidate running for president, the guy who happens to be a teetotaler and who refers to “sport” as though he were doing an impression of Mr. Burns or an English Olympics official.

As both Obama and Mitt Romney look to find any advantage heading into the final nine weeks of a nip-and-tuck presidential race, the president and his advisers are dispensing with subtlety and launching a suds-and-sports tour of America aimed at burnishing his regular-guy appeal.

If it sounds familiar, it’s because Republicans have long sought to win the who-would-you-rather-have-a-beer-with campaign, as George W. Bush did hands down in both 2000 and 2004.

Now, though, the cleat is on the other foot and Republicans are facing a bit of cosmic payback in trying to win with a nominee of their own who struggles to connect with the people.

Enter Obama, jock and newfound habitué of sports-themed watering holes across the land.

Just since July, Obama has stopped at four different bars to quaff a cold one, bought a round of Bud Lights at the Iowa State Fair and released his White House microbrew recipe, according to CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, who keeps meticulous records of the president’s activities.

And in the past few weeks, he’s begun finding his way to sports bars where two of the country’s favorite leisure pursuits are combined.

“I’ve been missing football a little too much,” he admitted at The Point After in Sioux City on the opening weekend of college football this month.

Last Saturday night he walked into Gators Dockside, an Orlando sports bar, pantomiming an alligator chop with his arms — the signature move University of Florida Gators fans make at games.

Even during his speeches, Obama has been finding a way to get in sports references.

Outside of Des Moines, Iowa, he began his remarks on the first Saturday of September by giving a nod to what many in the audience were thinking: “College football is in the air. We will try to get you home in time to see the Hawkeyes and the Cyclones. I know we’ve got kickoff later.”

And when the NFL kicked off this past Sunday, the president began his remarks at an event in Melbourne, Fla., with an assurance: “The most important thing I have to say is football starts today. So we intend to be finished to get home in time for kickoff.”